Last week I was with a group of my friends and the matter of the creation of the universe came up. One of my friends made a reference that was essentially, "Who was the First Mover?" after a brief discussion of the Higgs Boson(s). A particularly annoying acquaintance of mine at this gathering made the comment, "We will never know everything about the universe because we are flawed" wrapped in a reference to how the goddess created us.

I've been rolling it around, unintentionally, in my head all week. I get more annoyed every time it pops up. "We're flawed, we're just victims, wah, we can't know what the creator gods don't want us to know, boo hoo, change my diaper."

We don't know it all. Possibly we will never know it all. Scientists are glad of the possibility that we'll always be searching and learning, because once you know it all there's no more joy of discovery, of chasing down a crazy elusive solution, of being amazed by nature. But we might. One day, provided we don't annihilate ourselves as a species and the rest of the universe as well, we just might find the answers to all the questions.

It is, in my opinion, pointless to argue with these 'oh we're flawed we're just children boo hoo' people. Some of you out there are undoubtedly a million times better at doing so, but for me, I don't bother. You can't argue faith. They always have an answer, and if they don't have one, they can make one up lickety-split. But it's annoying. And I am annoyed. And that is what I came to say today.

"The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. ... So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today." -- Lawrence Krauss

But if they're debating, trying to rationally use the "we're flawed" argument, then the rational reply I favor is:

Is a young child flawed because he can't do calculus, drive a car, have a job, perform surgery, or go to war? Or is it that he simply needs to grow, learn some things, gain age and knowledge and experience and wisdom. He needs to become an adult and learn those things, then he can do them. It's not a flaw to be young. It's not a flaw to have incomplete knowledge of a subject. (I usually make sure I have their agreement, buy-in, before proceeding). We as humans are not flawed because we lack an understanding of how the universe works. That's not a flaw. We're working on it. We're gaining age, as a species, along with knowledge and experience and wisdom. Eventually we might know, as a species, everything there is to know. That doesn't mean that we're flawed until then.

Rationally, there's not much room for arguing against that. Of course, many faiths teach that we're flawed, and if they argue from faith, well, there is no rational argument to overcome that.

"Whores perform the same function as priests, but far more thoroughly." - Robert A. Heinlein